E.explained to us his water recycling system – a wetland filtration system which is almost finished. His house is now an ECO house, with almost all water being recycled in a trench (15m long, 70cm deep) in front of the house, filled with several layers of different materials (broken tiles, ceramic, coal, sand, and ceramics and mulch on the top) to filter out any residues. As last step, wetland plants, such a papyrus, will be planted on the trench.

He has a pond with a capacity of 12.000 l water, and he’ll have an additional tank with 20.000 l, for irrigation and as emergency reservoirs in case of fire. Next time there is a fire near his house, he’ll have plenty of water to defend it (he needs a conventional diesel generator in case of power failure).

The system uses two solar powered pumps during the day and one magnetic induction pump during the night, to pump the water up to a cascade behind the house. The pumps also oxygenate the water so that fish can be added to the cascade. The fish will be eating any larvae so that the system does not breed mosquitoes.

Updates:

U spoke briefly about Madeira Lovers, D’s souvenir shop, he has problems finding a good shop and making enough money (he has our Beach Basked prototype) He had to give up the shop in the airport because the Vinci group only wants their own shops.
E.is not in contact with A.A. anymore. He and his buddy S.M. asked him for assistance with Hub projects in the port (creating competition between the transport operators), as he had worked in such projects in Brazil. He worked on it but they won’t go through with it because it would obviously damage special interests (read: Sousa).

The Bread Project and the Supper Club are still on the table. R. already shot part of the film with E. for the Bread Project

R’s film is almost finished, he needs some more financing, he hopes to have it ready in December. We are all looking forward to seeing it!

We spoke about the Praia Formosa debacle. Apparently the owners of the parking lot wanted to build a hotel but they wouldn’t get a license because the land is less that 50 m from the sea, so it’s public domain and building is prohibited: This is why the owners blocked the parking from being used – a typical Madeiran situation.

There was a good TED talk about civil disobedience, and here is a link to e website which lists 198 ways of Civil Disobedience:

We spoke about the fact that Madeirans a have no protest culture. They are educated to adhere to the mottos ”Don’t make waves” and “Don’t think”. A free thinker is a trouble maker.

We also spoke about the groups purpose and came up with a new idea of a “Life School” or “Discovery Club” (avoiding the word “school”, an example is at http://www.spps.org/Domain/10133 ) for youngsters as of the age of 14 – 16

Many of our members are or were teachers and R. is very interested in this as well. After a heated discussion, we decided we could start a project for youngsters who have fulfilled their compulsory school time, to learn in a “Discovery Club” about the joy of experiencing and learning first-hand instead of being indoctrinated with knowledge. They should also be encouraged to tackle their question of their purpose in life. R. says that they should be able to come to a reasonable answer to this quest within a few months.

Basically, it’s “Forget the system” (this also goes for politics and the Government), and set up a new way of dealing with an issue. This would be disruptive.

Examples of “parallel” or disruptive industries which are so new that they cannot be suppressed by the system are: Uber, Supper Clubs, “My Twin Place” home swaps for holidays (https://www.mytwinplace.com/en/ ). All these new industries are at the start unregulated, without insurance and taxation and start parallel to old systems.

Traditional schools kill curiosity, indoctrinate, and any knowledge acquired through memorizing is not remembered. Knowledge is forced on the children. It is also a matter of respect to let a child find out what it wants to learn, not to be forced, a natural interest in learning is always there Every human being is unique.

Well known examples of alternative learning are Waldorf (well know in Finland, this country has more free thinkers), Summerhill, Rudolf Steiner and Home schooling. D. told us about the 180◦ change in their daughter when she came to a Waldorf school. D.himself went to France for a year, and, as a foreigner, was left alone to learn what he wanted to learn. He was very happy with it, and it turned out to be great for him .

To come to grips with this, U.found a comprehensive definition of this concept in Wikipedia under “unschooling” and there is a book “Teach your own” which deals with home schooling.

A.has an “Escola de Semente” for younger children, organized by their parents, in his Quinta. He is out until next week, then U will ask him about it.

The Discovery Club will let the children find out what they want to be, what they want to discover. This way, they’ll integrate this knowledge for life. Give them tools to show them possibilities. Let them experiment with nature’s materials. Own experience leads to better understanding. The Club gives out no diplomas